No matter how long I set before my magic window...there was one pony I couldn't bring myself to look up the fate of.

I know, it's stupid, being able to watch the fates of every last one of my other friends play out in front of me...Seeing Patch's...encounter with Film Critique (thank the Father she stopped that maniac...you're free now Violet...) ...Sweetheart's sister be torn apart by monsters...Bon Bon losing her sister and having to raise her niece...

But I can't bring me to watch the fate of Ms. Hackney, our teacher. She hadn't been at my trial...I don't think she had been...She'd been on her deathbed before the disaster. The spell would have saved her...but I couldn't bare the thought she'd become someone different than the person that meant so much to me.

My friends, I'd been shown their fates, told of them at the trial...I knew they forgave me. I knew the ponies they became in the world that never was would forgive me...But I can't know if she did.

I know, it sounds strange to be so obsessed over my high school teacher's fate but...she wasn't just a teacher to me. She was someone who was always there for me. She trusted me, she always wanted me to be the best I could be. She helped make me better than I ever would've been without her. Even after I graduated, I stayed in contact with her. I WANTED to be with her when the spell was cast...but I couldn't. That's what hurts the most...no matter what fate she met...Whether she died from the blast or from natural causes...I never got to say goodbye...

"Excuse me, Starlight."

I didn't need to see him to know who it was, it isn't a voice that you can easily forget. "...Hello, Mortis. Can I go greet my friends yet?"

"Not yet. I am afraid me and my children are still escorting souls from...the Day as they've come to call it to their final resting place."

Before you ask, the Mortis who escorted Squire to the Father was technically from the future. I'm not even going to try to explain how that works, Judicium was right, it's something mortals aren't meant to comprehend, even dead ones. Traveling forwards in time to me seemed to be cheating. Since I died on 'the Day', and chose not to pass on so I could wait for my friends, I didn't want to take any shortcuts. That and apparently only Gods are immune to temporal paradoxes, thus traveling up and down the time stream to meet my friends isn't exactly the safest thing for a mortal soul to do. And that's not taking into account the fact there's multiple possible futures I could get caught up in.

Thankfully, time still moved quicker here than on the mortal plane, so I wouldn't have to keep my mother and the rest of those who have already moved on waiting forever.

I sighed. "Thanks anyway."

"But a soul I just brought to My Father wished to see you."

A chill went down my spine...which STILL shouldn't be possible, since I don't have one anymore.

"A soul?"

Please don't be her, please don't be her...

"Starlight..."

I turn to see...her...the one soul who's fate I'd been too chicken to look into...Ms. Hackney.

"Ms. Hackney..." I was...taken a back at first....She wasn't the elderly old mare in the last days of her life I'd last seen her as (should've expected that, since I look like I did in high school) but the same age she was when she was when she taught our class. It...it made me feel worse...

"...Did...Did the explosion kill you?" It took all my willpower not to ask 'did I kill you?'

She nodded slowly.

That was it. I broke down crying. How can souls CRY?!

"I'm sorry...We should've tried harder...we should've done SOMETHING different!" I sobbed, I didn't CARE in that moment about forgiving myself...It was true, the project had killed her...I was one of the ones who'd killed her...

Then she gave me what Patch called 'the Look'. I'd oh so rarely received it myself...and that made it all the more effective.

"I didn't come here so you'd beg me to forgive you, Starlight. I was already dying, whether the explosion had killed me or not, I'd have died that day anyway," Ms. Hackney told me in the voice I'd heard directed at Patch and Teddy so many times. The one that makes you feel afraid of being punished but loved at the same time. Only teachers and parents know it. "I came here because I wanted to meet my star pupil one last time before going off to be with my family...and tell her how proud I am of her."

I gasped in shock. "P-Proud? Of what? I...I helped destroy the world..."

Ms. Hackney approached me. "Mortis told me about the trial when I asked if you were waiting for me. You chose the right thing instead of taking the easy way out. That is not something just anypony can do...I'm proud of you, Starlight."

I didn't care how a soul could cry as I burst into tears of joy and hugged her and her me. "...Thank you..."

"And Starlight, one last thing...I do forgive you, you never had to worry about that."

"...And I accept it...Thank you..."

She finally broke the hug and gave me a smile. "Now, how about we use this window thing over here and find out who I was before I go wait for you seven in the great beyond?"

And we did...Ms. Hackney hadn't changed much...she'd become a teacher in that world. The Earth Pony named Kimono who'd appeared at my trial. She was still smart, still willing to share her knowledge with those who wanted it. It turned out her wish had been to never stop teaching other ponies to grow. I guess that's why instead of her soul choosing her prime, she chose the age she'd taught all of us.

And poor Starlight. Heck, all seven of those ponies. Reading these makes me wish I cold give them all a hug. Though I imagine they'd be pretty shocked if I did. All save Patch, who would probably hoof me one in the jaw.